


Fire Starter

by yeaka



Category: Original Work
Genre: Dark, Ficlet, Gen, WTF
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-10
Updated: 2013-01-10
Packaged: 2017-11-24 23:57:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/632930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Molly's a liar.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire Starter

When Molly was only seven, Molly was introduced to the idea of a lollipop. The lollipop, Teacher would say, was a reward for reading a book. If a student completed a reading log—what they thought of the book, if they liked it, what the main character’s name was, blah blah blah—they got a special prize. Most of the lollipops were purple—Molly’s favourite. So Molly went to the school Library and picked up a book.

On the first page, the name that came up the most was Willhelma. So Molly deduced that the main character’s name was Willhelma. Because Willhelma was a stupid name, Molly also concluded that the book was stupid, and she wouldn’t like it. So she took it back to her desk and filled out a reading log. She wrote things like, “I have read this book,” and “It had lots of verbs and nouns in it.” She was as vague as possible and focused most of the report on brash opinions that were based on absolutely nothing. “The main character was very under-developed and didn’t make any sense. She made stupid decision and I didn’t like her. I bet if she were an animal she’d be a pig. Blah blah blah.”

Then she gave it to Teacher, and said, very stiffly, “I have read this book.”

And Teacher said, “Good for you, Billy,” (because Billy was her real name, but that was a stupid name, so she pretended it was Molly) and then Teacher gave her a purple lollipop.

The minute the thin, white stick was in her hands, Molly felt a huge rush. How easy was that? She could do this every day.

And she did.

And one day Jenna Patterson, the most popular girl in the class, (because she had pink go-go boots and long blonde hair, which was really all it took to be popular in Molly’s school) was saying to the other girls at lunch break, “ _Gawd,_ I hate Jim. Jim is _such_ an idiot. Any enemy of Jim is a friend of mine.”

And Molly, who was ten pounds bigger than Jenna with baby fat in her cheeks and clothes made of burlap (for her parents often shopped whilst smoking mar... marij... marijah... that thing that Molly has trouble pronouncing), desperately wanted to be Jenna’s friend. Partially because she wanted to hold Dave Davidsondavis’ hand, which required Jenna’s approval.

So Molly went into Teacher’s desk right then and there while the whole class watched in surprise. It was lunch, so Teacher was gone, but it was still odd—students simply didn’t do that. Feeling all eyes on her, Molly got that set of matches out of the drawer that Teacher used to smoke marijah-what’cha-ma-call-it behind the school when he thought no one was looking. Then she marched right over to Jim, who was sitting peacefully in the corner, picking his nose, but nevertheless, not actually impeding anyone else’s life. Quick as a button, Molly raked the match across the matchbox and chucked the thing as soon as it lit onto Jim’s frizzy hair, because she didn’t want to burn her fingers.

Jim freaked out. He jumped up and screamed, pulling his finger out of his nose. Astrid Demetrius screamed, Heather Dungwater began shrieking over and over again, and Dave Davidsondavis actually fainted. Those were all the other kids eating inside. Molly smiled. Jenna laughed.

Teacher, who must have heard the screams, ran into the room. As soon as he saw Jim running around, he freaked out too. He grabbed Jim’s water bottle and dumped it over Jim’s head. Molly slipped the matches into her pocket. Teacher ran to the fire extinguisher and broke the glass, pulling out the red canister and shooting white foam all over Jim’s already put-out head. Eventually, Jim stopped screaming. Molly gave him devil eyes.

When everything was relatively calm again, Teacher asked Molly if she’d set Jim’s hair on fire. Molly said, looking Teacher right in the eye (having practiced with all those book reports) and said, “No, I did not. I did not set Jim’s head on fire.”

And Jim was too scared to say anything, and Dave was rushed to a psychiatric hospital to deal with his trauma, and when he came back, he still didn’t say anything because of Jenna. Astrid and Heather shut up, because Jenna was very happy, and from then on, Molly was her friend. Molly became the second most popular girl in the class, got to hold Dave Davidsondavis’ hand, and got all the lollipops she wanted.

When Teacher discovered the truth, he told her parents that they would just have to teach her to learn how fun not burning things was, because really, that was the real problem. After several exercises revolving around this, her parents asked her if she had learned the fun of not burning things. Molly looked them right in the eye and said, “Yes.”

But she was lying.


End file.
